Department of Health and Social Care

Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many linear accelerator machines in NHS Trusts will go beyond their recommended 10-year lifespan in the next three years.

Helen Whately: This data is not held by the Department. From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health service, 2022 to 2025, and the recent Capital Planning Guidance, which states that integrated care systems will need to develop replacement plans as part of their multi-year capital plans, in partnership with specialised commissioners, Cancer Alliances and Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Networks, based on an assessment of equipment age, capacity and demand, opportunities to improve access and service risk.

Dementia: Hypertension

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Royal College of Nursing on the implications for his policies of the link between dementia and high blood pressure.

Helen Whately: There have been no recent discussions with the Royal College of Nursing on the implications for policy of the link between dementia and high blood pressure. However, on 17 May we published a call for evidence giving the public, charities, patient groups and other stakeholders an opportunity to inform the Major Conditions Strategy, helping to build consensus on what actions need to be prioritised. We would welcome contributions from the Royal College of Nursing and others on the implications for policy of the link between dementia and high blood pressure. The call for evidence can be found at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/major-conditions-strategy-call-for-evidence.

Strokes: Health Services

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the importance of Stroke Recovery Services to stroke survivors and their families.

Helen Whately: The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, made an assessment of improving stroke services, including better stroke rehabilitation services and increased access to specialist stroke units.Following that assessment, the Integrated Community Stroke Service (ICSS) model published in February 2022, coordinates the transfer of care of stroke survivors from hospital, and provides home-based stroke rehabilitation through a specialist multidisciplinary team structure. It provides an integrated seven days per week service, providing early supported discharge, high-intensive and needs-based community stroke rehabilitation and disability management.The National Health Service has a robust audit process to monitor and improve acute stroke care within the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme. This data is regularly reviewed and informs the programme’s priorities and plays a pivotal role in supporting quality improvement.

Urinary Tract Infections: Medical Treatments

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are admitted to hospital each year with urinary tract infections; what the cost was to the public purse of the NHS of treating people with urinary tract infections in the last financial year; and whether the NHS plans to take steps to improve options for community-based services to treat urinary tract infections.

Helen Whately: The following table shows the number of people admitted to hospital each year in the last five years with urinary tract infections (UTIs).YearAdmissions2018/19184,7942019/20179,7852020/21135,5942021/22152,695 Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS EnglandData for 2021/22 is latest data available. We cannot provide data on the total cost to the NHS of treating patients with UTI in the last financial year (2022/23).   NHS England published on 9 May 2023 its Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. This sets out proposals to improve options for community-based services to treat urinary tract infections. Appropriately trained community pharmacists will be commissioned to provide a clinical service to care for patients with urinary symptoms, providing timely access to assessment, information and advice.

Integrated Care Boards

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that (a) patients and (b) other members of the public are involved in the decision-making structures of Integrated Care Boards.

Helen Whately: Integrated care board (ICB) constitutions are expected to include principles and arrangements for how the ICB will work with patients and communities. ICBs are also required (under section 13Q of the NHS Act 2006) to involve the public in the commissioning of services for National Health Service patients. ICBs must set out how they plan to discharge this duty in their joint forward plans.NHS England and the Department worked with a wide range of partners including Healthwatch England and the Patients Association to develop statutory guidance on working in partnership with people and communities in 2022, which sets out guidance on how to fulfil their duty on public involvement and consultation.

Bowel Cancer: Diagnosis

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will ensure that the Major Conditions Strategy includes measures in line with the NHS Long Term Plan to increase the number and proportion of bowel cancer patients diagnosed at stage I or stage II by 2028.

Helen Whately: The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer in people of all ages, covering the patient pathway. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.This Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. The summary of responses to the Call for Evidence was published on 17 May 2023.  We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens, and the NHS in coming weeks to identify actions for the Strategy that will have the most impact.

Cancer: Drugs

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to offer oncology departments additional support to manage changes in the level of demand for cancer drugs.

Helen Whately: NHS England is the responsible commissioner for systemic anti-cancer therapies (SACT). NHS England has established a task and finish group to gather, collate and compile available information to establish SACT delivery capacity and to generate recommendations for the short, medium, and longer term to alleviate any identified pressures on service delivery. The group has a primary focus on chemotherapy for the breast cancer tumour group because this is where the delivery capacity is best illustrated. It is hoped that general principles from the output of the task-and-finish group can be applied across different systems in England.

Eating Disorders: Palliative Care

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he made of the number of eating disorder patients who were moved into palliative care in each of the last five years.

Helen Whately: This information is not held centrally.

Screening: Community Diagnostic Centres

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department conducted a public consultation on the diagnostic (a) tests, (b) procedures and (c) equipment available at Community Diagnostic Centres.

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of each type of diagnostic test available in Community Diagnostic Hubs was delivered in each month between June 2019 and June 2021.

Helen Whately: Neither the Department nor NHS England conducted a public consultation on the diagnostic (a) tests, (b) procedures and (c) equipment available at Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs). This is because the selection of core services offered by CDCs is a clinical decision and based on the requirements of patients on the waiting list. Core services for standard and large model CDCs are based on recommendations from Sir Mike Richards Review, Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal, published in November 2020.For individual CDCs, and proposed spoke site modalities, the inclusion of additional services is based on their own local assessment of clinical need. Public engagement for location and design of CDCs is recommended as part of national guidance.Community Diagnostic Centres started reporting activity from July 2021. The government does not hold data on activity recorded prior to July 2021 for Community Diagnostic Centres.

Department for Business and Trade

Food: Japan

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many British food brands (a) have been granted and (b) are awaiting geographical indication status in Japan since the Government agreed a free trade deal with that country.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent estimate she has made of the average waiting time for British food brands to be granted geographical indication status in Japan.

Nigel Huddleston: The UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) entered into effect on 1 January 2021, and secured protection for 7 of the most economically valuable UK Geographical Indications (GIs) from day one.The department is having positive discussions with the Japanese government on completing the process of registering GIs and adding them to our agreement text. We look forward to seeing progress soon, though as these discussions are live it would be inappropriate to comment on specific timescales.